The World’s First Climate Change Crisis

To understand the future, investigate the past. To grasp the humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan, one must look back in history. This crisis has been profoundly misunderstood. It is essential to consider the mid-1980s, before the violence between Africans and Arabs began to simmer. The fighting in Darfur is usually described as racially and religiously motivated, pitting the Rapid Special Forces, which is an offshoot of the notorious “Janjeweed” Arab militia group against African rebels and civilians. But the fault lines can be traced to settled farmers and nomadic herds fighting over failing lands

The humanitarian crisis in Darfur has often been called the “first climate change conflict” by many international observers, given the confluence of environmental and political factors leading to the conflict. Sudan and the Darfur region in particular is home to diverse ecological zones, ranging from arid deserts in the north to semi-tropical environments in the south. In the years leading up to the outbreak of war in 2003, the Sahel region of northern Sudan witnessed the Sahara Desert advance southward by almost a mile each year and a decrease in annual median rainfall measurably.

These long-term climatic trends have had significant consequences for Sudan’s two predominant agricultural systems. These are smallholder farmers relying on rain-fed production and nomadic pastoralists. Agriculturalists in Sudan are predominantly ethno-African, while pastoralists are disproportionately of Arab ethnicity. Fast-moving desertification and drought slowly eroded the availability of natural resources. This affected livelihoods and the peaceful coexistence of these two groups in the region. Longstanding pasture and grazing corridors in Sudan began to shrink rapidly. Traditional communal land tenure systems could not manage this speed.

Recognizing Climate Change as a player in the conflict means finding a solution beyond a political treaty. This involves more than just an agreement between the rebels and government. To create a new status quo that has a moral authority, local leaders must put aside old agreements. They need to carve out new ones. Lifestyles and agricultural practices would likely need to accommodate many tribes on more fragile land.